Columbus planners look to dress up city's 'image corridors'

Despite scant public participation, the first chapters have been written for the comprehensive plan that will govern city development over the next decade.

The chapters outline the strategic concept of future Columbus -- a vision formulated after a crowd of 15 citizens or so told planners in March what they thought Columbus had and should have.

At the second public workshop Thursday, a crowd of 25 or so citizens reviewed the strategic concept -- which can be viewed online early next week at the website Columbusplan.blogspot.com -- and added their suggestions.

"Most of those (initial) questions were warm-up," said Darrell Meyer, one of the designers for the city''s planning and design firm, the KPS Group. "We do that to get people talking, not just to us, but to each other."

The plan, which is intentionally vague at this point in the planning process, recommends adding more green space, including parks connected by bike paths, and dressing up the city''s "image corridors" including highways 45, 82 and 69.

"We want that first handshake to really be something," Meyer said of the city''s entrances.

Other changes proposed included varying street lighting from residential to commercial areas and building more commerce at large intersections.

Due to scheduling conflicts with the city, the next public workshop -- on land use and transportation -- will be rescheduled from May 12 to another date. For more information, e-mail City Planner Christina Berry at [email protected] or call her at 662-245-5061.